Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Otis Buckingham at the Big Air Wing Foil World Championship

Results

In July of 2024, I competed in my first Big Air Wing Foil World Championship. This event was held in the Canary Islands, Spain off the west coast of Africa. The Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation generously supported my trip to Europe. This was my first European trip and hopefully, it will not be my last! 

After 24 hours of travel, we finally arrived in La Palma, the main island of the Canaries. All the board bags made it safely and the trip had begun. My mom and I arrived 3 days before the holding period for the event started. Those 3 extra days allowed me to acclimate to the environment and become familiar with the local conditions on the water. The event was held at a spot called Salinas. Salinas is known for its hurricane-force winds and perfectly-sized waves for jumping. My first session at Salinas was very fun; the wind was perfect and I practiced all my tricks without injuring myself. I had one more day of training after that and then the event window opened. 

The first day of the event started with the top 23 big air wing foilers in the world registering and picking up their jerseys. It was nice to see some familiar faces and catch up with friends. The skippers meeting was at 10 am sharp where the event coordinators went over the judging criteria. The elimination ladder was posted and the competition was on! I was in heat 3 of 8 and before I knew it, I was on the water, in my red jersey, waiting for the green flag to go up and signal the start of my heat. I started off the heat with a couple of standard straight airs, attempting to get as much height as I could. After locking in a few solid scores, I started to send riskier frontflips. For each heat, you are allowed a total of 8 attempts, so I completed 4 straight airs and 4 frontflips. The red flag went up and the heat concluded. Back on land, I set my gear down and found out I won the heat! This gave me a huge confidence boost. I was ecstatic and had a post-heat interview after. I finished Round 1 with a heat win under my belt and went straight into Round 3. 

When I arrived at the event site on day 2, I could see that it was windier but the waves were not as good as day 1. We had a brief skippers meeting at 11 am and heats were set to start at 12:30 pm. There were 4 heats in round 3 and I was in heat 2. The competitors' field had been cut in half and now the skill level of everyone was very high. All my gear was set up, 1 board and two wings on the beach in case one popped. I watched the heats before me closely and observed which maneuvers were receiving the highest scores. I hit the water and was feeling more confident than ever. The horn blew and the heat was on. I stuck to a similar strategy of completing 2 straight airs then began sending massive frontflips. Unfortunately, in my first 4 frontflip attempts, I over-rotated and wiped out. This rattled me because I knew I could stick these front flips with ease. I didn't let the frustration get to me and regrouped. I stuck my last two attempts but knew it was going to be close. I arrived on the beach and found out I missed advancing by only 2 points. I was bummed right after the heat then later realized that this whole event was an amazing experience that it taught me a lot about competition. I ended the competition with an equal 9th place. Since this was the only Big Air event of the year, I finished 9th on the 2024 Wingfoil Big Air World rankings.  

The event finished in two days leaving the remaining free time to explore La Palma and take in the culture. I enjoyed this trip very much and hope to go back very soon. Thank you to my family and everyone who is supporting me on this journey.

2024 Big Air Wing Foil World Championship
Canary Islands, Spain